Printing-wheel for numbering-machines.



Patented May 7, I901.

No. 673,5l8.

0. s. FOLLETT. PRINTING WHEEL- FOB NUMBERING MACHINES.

(Applicatidn filed Mar. 19, 1901.)

(No Model.)

UNITED STATE PATENT rrfrcn.

OSCAR S. FOLLETT, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO WILBUR I. FOLLETT,

OF BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, NEW 'YORK', N. Y.

PRINTING-WHEEL Foe NUIVlBERING- MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 673,518, dated May 7,1901. Application filed March l9, 1901. Serial No. 51,8 i3. (N0 model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

lienknown that I, OSCAR S. FOLLETT, acitizen of the United States, residing at 'New York, in the county of New York, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Printing-Wheels for Numbering-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to printing-wheels for numbering-machines, and has for its object the production of a wheel having all its parts cast as a finished article in one integral piece.

In order to obtain the best results in numbering-machines as regards the alinement of the characters and a uniform impression, the printing-wheels have to be very accurate. The faces of the printing characters, besides having to be uniformly spaced, must bea uniform distance from the center of the wheel to obtain uniform impressions, for if one figure is farther away from the center of the wheel than any other the figure nearest the center of the wheelmay not reach the surface to be printed upon. The ratchet feed-teeth and centering-notches accurately provided on the body relatively to the printing characters conduce to uniform alinement of all parts. Not only must the wheels be of uniform diameter, but wheels which occupy a given position in the series of wheels making up a numbering machine must be of uniform thicknessthat is, all of the wheels employed in the units position must be of the same thickness as wheels used in the tens position, 850. A numbering-machine is rigid and unyielding in its movements, and if the Wheels are not of uniform diameter and thickness or if the ratchet and centering-notches are not accurately spaced it will be impossible to secure uniformity of results in printing.

In producing a numbering-wheel by the methods heretofore employed a great amount of machine-work had to be gone through with and frequent testings and standardizings of the tools used in forming the printing-wheel were necessary. Great care also had to be exercised in riveting the ratchet to the body proper, for if too strong a blow was made in riveting it would cause narrowing of the parts, causing a change in the diameter of the wheel. In facing, leveling, or flattening of lation.

the face of the figures. on the printing-wheel to enable them to print uniformly uniformity was not always secured, and without it printing was impossible. To obtain the necessary accuracy in casting, various difficulties had to be overcome. In the first place, to obtain any sort of uniformity in the castings they all had to be made from a single mold structure. This had, therefore, to be similar-in natu re to a die, for the reasons that it had, first, to be so constructed to be separable laterally to clear the raised printing characters and vertically to clear the ratchet feed-teeth and capable of having its parts reassembled to identically the same positions, and, second, the interior of the mold had to be sharp at its angles to obtain a clear outline for the printing characters. Another difficulty 'to be overcome Was the variable shrinkage of the mold and the metal used in the casting. This difficulty is overcome by adopting suitable metal and subjecting the casting to pressure, preferably hydraulic, and while under such pressure allowing the casting to cool in the mold. The mold had to be of metal to sustain the pressure. An extremely hard metal cannot be cast in a metal mold, and if cast in any other mold the shrinkage is too great. A soft metal, while it could be cast in'a metal moldfwould notdo, becauseit would not have sufficientdurability. Obviously, then, a special metal or metal compound having little shrinkage and hard enough to withstand the wear had to be used. It will therefore be seen that the ordinary methods of casting could not be used, for the reason that the products are not finished and they have to be machined. Sand, plaster, and similar molds could not be used, because a new mold would have to be made for each printing-wheel; also, because they could not also be subjected to pressure to prevent shrinkage, to say nothing of the irregularity of the shrinkage in such molds rendering a casting worthless. The advantage of casting together in one integral structure a printing-wheel with its printing characters and its notches and a ratchet is not only cheapness of production, but the absolute uniformity of all parts considered separately and the accuracy secured in their mutual re- By a single operation a finished article is produced ready for use-that is to say, after the casting is removed from the mold no machining is necessary.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a printing-wheel made according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a crosssection of the same on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an edge view, and 4 is a side elevation, of a nu m bering-machine having print-J ing-wheels embodying my invention.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all of the figures.

A designates the main frame of a numbering-machine, B a support for the printingwheels 0, and D a handle for reciprocating said wheels.

E designates a finger-lever carrying a pawllever e, by means of which the printing-wheels are shifted. 1

The organization of the machine itself (shown in Fig. 4-) is described in United States Patent No. 478,241, granted July 5, 1892, to Charles H. Shaw.

The printing-wheel which forms the subjectmatter of my invention is designated by the letter C. It consists ofa ring-shaped body portion 0 and-an annular shoulder portion 0 on one of its faces. The outer periphery of the shouldered portion 0' is provided with ratchetteeth 0 all of these ratchet-teeth being of a uniform size with the exception of one tooth, which is a deep one. The relative sizes of the ratchet-teeth vary according to the printing-Wheel they are provided on. The outer periphery of the body portion 0 is provided with printing characters 0 and the inner periphery with notches c. The faces of these printing characters are each fiat and at uniform distances from the center of the wheel. The notches are radially arranged, and in connection with detents carried by-a drum mounted in, the movable support serve the same purpose described in connection with the detents of the above-mentioned patent. The detents and drum are not illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

While I have illustrated a numbering-machine, it is to be distinctly understood that my invention is confined to the wheel used on.

I The wheel G'possesses all the characteristics before described as desirable and necessary in a printing-wheel for a numbering-machine. It is castas a finished article in one piece of metal, and'the uniformity of impression which-it gives is secured by reason of the fact that these Wheels are of uniform diameter, are uniformly spaced in printing characters, and of uniform thickness.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

' 1. As an article of manufacture, a numbering-machine printing-wheel, having a ringshaped body, provided on its outer periphery with printing characters, the faces of which are'each flat and at uniform distances from the center of the wheel; and provided on one side with an annular shoulder having ratchetteeth, said printing characters and annular shoulder and ratchet-teeth being cast as a finished article of standard size and proportions in-one integral piece of metal.

2. As an article of manufacture, a numbering-machine printing-wheel, having a ringshaped body, provided on its outer periphery with printin g characters, the faces. of which are each flat and at uniform distances from the center of the wheel; and provided also on its inner periphery with spacing or centering notches, and provided on one side with an annular shoulder having ratchet-teeth, said printing characters, spacing or centering notches, and an n ular shoulder and ratchet being cast as a finished article of standard size and proportions in one integral piece of metal.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

OSCAR S. FOLLETT.

Witnesses:

CHARLES S. JONES, GEO. E. ORUsE. 

